First Taiwan Strait Crisis

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First Taiwan Strait Crisis
Part of the
LCM as ships at anchor await their arrival, 6 February 1955.
Date3 September 1954 – 1 May 1955
(7 months and 4 weeks)
Location
Taiwan Strait
Result

Ceasefire; major escalation avoided

Belligerents
 Republic of China
 United States		  People's Republic of China
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek
Liu Yuzhang
Dwight D. Eisenhower		 Mao Zedong
Zhou Enlai
Peng Dehuai
Xu Xiangqian
Casualties and losses
519 killed[1]
2 killed[2]		 393 killed[1]

The First Taiwan Strait Crisis (also known as the Formosa Crisis, the 1954–1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Offshore Islands Crisis, the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis, and the 1955 Taiwan Strait Crisis) was a brief armed conflict between the

Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The conflict focused on several groups of islands in the Taiwan Strait
that were held by the ROC but were located only a few miles from mainland China.

The crisis began when the PRC initiated heavy bombardment on the ROC-held island of

Formosa Resolution was approved by both houses of the U.S. Congress, authorizing President Dwight D. Eisenhower
to defend the ROC and its possessions. The U.S. Navy then assisted the Nationalists in evacuating from the Tachen Islands.

The crisis de-escalated in April 1955 after Premier Zhou Enlai articulated the PRC's intention to negotiate with the United States at the Bandung Conference, and in May 1955 the People's Liberation Army ceased shelling Kinmen and Matsu. Ambassadorial-level discussions between China and the U.S. began in Geneva in August 1955. The fundamental issues of the conflict remained unresolved, which led to a new crisis three years later.

Background

While the

People's Republic of China, effectively putting Taiwan under American protection. The move was also intended to deter ROC attacks against the Chinese Mainland
.

On 27 June 1950, President Truman issued the following statement:[5]

The

Formosa
by Communist forces would be a direct threat to the security of the Pacific area and to United States forces performing their lawful and necessary functions in that area. Accordingly, I have ordered the
Harry Truman

President Truman later ordered John Foster Dulles,[a] the Foreign Policy Advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, to carry out his decision on "neutralizing" Taiwan in drafting the Treaty of San Francisco of 1951 (the peace treaty with Japan), which excluded the participation of both the ROC and the PRC. Each self-claimed legitimate government of China was excluded from the treaty because the question of China's legitimate government remained unresolved after World War II and the Chinese Civil War, and this was considered an intractable sticking point in otherwise comprehensive and multilaterally beneficial peace negotiations.

Japan ceded control of Taiwan in the treaty but did not specify a recipient for Taiwan's sovereignty. This situation has been used by supporters of

Taiwanese independence, in his book Formosa Betrayed
, the political status of Taiwan was under the trust of the Allied Powers (against Japan). It would be the responsibility of the United Nations if this could not be resolved in near future as designed in the peace treaty.

The

anticommunists
for preventing any attempt by Chiang Kai-shek's forces to liberate mainland China.

Truman, a member of the

Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, a General
from World War II.

On 2 February 1953, the new president lifted the Seventh Fleet's blockade in order to fulfill demands by

naval blockade on foreign vessels on Chinese coast and the high seas,[7][8] whereas the privacy activities intensified in the summer 1953 after Joseph Stalin's death and the Korean Armistice Agreement till summed up to 141 interference incidents as per the Royal Navy escort reports.[9][10]

The

East China Military Region as per CMC chairman Mao Zedong's directive to open another front from the north.[14]

The conflict

In August 1954, the Nationalists placed 58,000 troops on Kinmen and 15,000 troops on Matsu. The ROC began building defensive structures and the PRC began shelling ROC installations on Kinmen. Zhou Enlai, PRC premier responded with a declaration on 11 August 1954, that Taiwan must be "liberated." He dispatched the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to the area, and it began shelling both Kinmen and the Matsu Islands.

Despite warnings from the U.S. against any attacks on the Republic of China; five days before the signing of the

Manila pact, the PLA unleashed a heavy artillery bombardment of Kinmen on September 3, during which two American military advisers were killed.[2]
In November, the PLA bombed the
Tachen Islands. This renewed Cold War fears of Communist expansion in Asia at a time when the PRC was not recognized by the United States Department of State. Chiang Kai-shek's government was supported by the United States because the ROC was part of the United States policy of containment of communism which stretched from a devastated South Korea to an increasingly divided Southeast Asia
.

On 12 September, the

U.S. Senate
on 9 February 1955.

During the crisis, Eisenhower threatened to use nuclear weapons against PRC military targets in Fujian.[15]: 89 

The PLA seized the

Tachen Islands.[16]

In February, British Prime Minister

Red China's military potential."[18]

At the April 1955 Bandung Conference, China articulated its Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and Premier Zhou Enlai publicly stated, "[T]he Chinese people do not want to have a war with the United States. The Chinese government is willing to sit down to discuss the question of relaxing tension in the Far East, and especially the question of relaxing tension in the Taiwan area."[19] The crisis de-escalated, and the United States and China began ambassadorial-level discussions in Geneva on August 1, 1955.[19] Two years of negotiations with the United States followed, and covered many issues, although no agreement was reached on the primary issue, Taiwan.[19]

Aftermath

Some scholars hypothesized the PRC backed down in the face of American

nuclear brinksmanship and in light of the lack of willingness by the Soviet Union to threaten nuclear retaliation for an attack on the PRC. Others see the case as an example of effective application of extended deterrence by the United States. On 1 May the PLA temporarily ceased shelling Kinmen and Matsu. The fundamental issues of the conflict remained unresolved, however, and both sides subsequently built up their military forces on their respective sides of the Taiwan Strait leading to a new crisis three years later
.

Eisenhower's threats to use nuclear weapons during the crisis prompted Mao to begin China's nuclear program.[15]: 89–90  The first of China's nuclear weapons tests took place in 1964 and its first successful hydrogen bomb test occurred in 1967.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Dulles would later serve as Secretary of State himself under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

References

  1. ^ a b Han Cheung (12 January 2020). "Taiwan in Time: Yijiangshan: Moving the Americans to action?". Taipei Times. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Kinmen unveils monument in honor of US officer". Taipei Times. 8 December 2011. Retrieved 11 August 2019. The Kinmen Defense Command (KDC) unveiled a cenotaph on Tuesday to commemorate the late Lieutenant Colonel Frank Lynn of the US, who died in a Chinese artillery bombardment on Sept. 3, 1954, on Kinmen.{...}It was placed next to the cenotaph of Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Medendorp, which was installed at the wharf in August 1992. Medendorp was killed in the same bombing.
  3. ^ "Harry S Truman, "Statement on Formosa," January 5, 1950". University of Southern California. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  4. ^ "First and Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, Quemoy and Matsu Islands of Taiwan". The Cold War Museum. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  5. ^ Truman, Harry (27 June 1950). "Statement issued by President Truman". www.trumanlibrary.org. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  6. ^ Taiwan Independence Movement Archived December 22, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ National Archives Administration, National Development Council (8 January 2009). "Blockage on the Communist regions" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Archival Resources for Teaching.
  8. ^ Executive Yuan Decree (16 August 1950). "Emergency measures on shipping companies and vessels helping the Chinese Communists" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). ROC Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
  9. ISBN 9780765600530
    .
  10. ^ Li Zhen-hsiang (8 January 2009). "Praca" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Taiwan News Weekly, ver. 376, Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation.
  11. ^ Lin Hong-yi (2009). "Chapter 4，1953–1960" (PDF). Blockade the Mainland coast – the Closed Port Policy of ROC Government，1949–1960 (M.D. thesis) (in Chinese (Taiwan)). National Chengchi University.
  12. ^ Li Zhen-hsiang (8 January 2009). "The Anti-Communist Rampage: the Tuapse hijack incident in 1954" (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Taiwan People News.
  13. ISBN 978-0-16-049124-5. Archived
    from the original on 14 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  14. ^ Lang Yang (9 March 2000). "On the edge of war: A strategy review on the Kinmen Bombardment (Part 1)" (in Chinese (China)). Warship Information.
  15. ^
    ISBN 978-1-350-23394-2
    .
  16. ^ Rushkoff, Bennett C. "Eisenhower, Dulles and the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis, 1954–1955." Political Science Quarterly 96, no. 3 (1981): 469–72. [1]
  17. ISBN 978-1-4299-9068-4
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0-8108-8890-6
    .
  19. ^
    OCLC 1332788951
    .

Further reading

Library resources about
First Taiwan Strait Crisis

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